Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen are two novels that helped shape writing today. These novels and authors differ in many ways, such as subject and plot. They are also similar in some like, both novels being nontraditional and sentiments. The two novels are comparable when it comes to parents and “good” parenting styles. Rejection and fulfillment are present in both novels as well, but in the end, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice illuminates Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Mary Shelley was the daughter of the first feminist, Mary Wolstencraft. Shelley herself is a feminist and also a romanticist or focuses on what’s larger than life. Mary Shelley was also married in life. Similarly, Jane Austen was also a feminist. Austen instead, was more of a realist than romanticist. She was also never married. She states that she was “interested in the business of love” (Austen). Both of these women impacted writing and life today. Mary Shelley was considered the “Mother of Dystopia and Sci-Fi”. But because of Jane Austen, we reject marriage without love and we reject life without freedom.
In like manner, we see examples of parenting. In Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Ms. Bennet sticks up for the rest of her daughters when her husband jokes about “throwing in a good word” to Mr. Bingley on behalf of his favorite daughter Elizabeth (often called Lizzy). This could be taken as an example of “good” parenting because it shows that Ms. Bennet loves all her girls equally and thinks none are better than the others. In chapter one, the last sentence is, “The business of her [Ms. Bennet] life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news” (Austen 7). This shows that Ms. Bennet, in a sense, lives for her daughters and wants them to live a great life in an exceptional marriage. Not only does Ms. Bennet shows that she is in a sense a good parent, but Mr. Bennet does as well. For example, he goes and speaks to Mr. Bingley, so that the girls would be invited to his party. He does this and keeps it a secret, so he could surprise the girls and to see their reaction. This shows that he cares about his daughters’ happiness. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor is in a sense the monster’s parent.
Throughout Frankenstein, Victor refers to his creation as a monster, fiend, wretch, and other negative names. Victor also ends up abandoning his creation. This is a different example of parenting than we see in Pride and Prejudice, the opposite. Mr. and Ms. Bennet care about their daughters and would not abandon them. Another example of Victor being an, other than good parent to his monster is breaking him promise to make him a female companion. “For the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me” (Shelley 20). Victor broke his promise to the monster because he thought of the ending repercussions and what could happen if he were to create her. In this example, Victor was not necessarily being a bad parent, but instead a good person. Eventually, Victor realizes that you cannot control someone with freewill, similarly like parents cannot control teenagers.
By the same token, in both novels, we also see examples of rejection and fulfillment. The monster was rejected by Victor and was seeking fulfillment from Victor by having him create a mate that was the same as him. When thinking of some possible consequences if he ended up creating the monster’s companion, Victor states that even if they were to leave Europe, “the first results of those sympathies for which the daemon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precautious and full of terror” (Shelley 15-17). This shows Victor rejecting the monster and his species if he were to repopulate.
Another example of Victor yet again rejecting his creation is in the beginning of chapter twenty when he says, “Three years before, I was enraged in the same manner and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart and filled it forever with the bitterest remorse” (Shelley 4-6). This quotation shows that Victor does not love his creation at all, he alternatively rejects him. Similarly, in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, all of the daughters except for Jade were rejected by Mr. Bingley. Another example of rejection in this novel would be Elizabeth being personally rejected by Mr. Darcy, Darcy states while conversing with Mr. Bingley, “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men” (Austen 5-7). In the text Lizzy states, “I am not a romantic, and never had been. I just want to be comfortable” (Austen). This could be an example of fulfillment because she knows that she has to fulfill her womanly duties by getting married, not necessarily for love, but to be comfortable.
Nevertheless, knowing Pride and Prejudice was written five years before Frankenstein, Shelley ties in some of the sentiments in Austen’s novel. With that being said, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice illuminates Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Of course, both pride and prejudice are present in Jane Austen’s novel. Surprisingly, pride and prejudice are also found Frankenstein. For example, Victor Frankenstein is a prideful man. He created his monster even when people told him that he was mad or that recommended against it. An example of prejudice in the novel is prejudice against the monster.
All in all, although there are comparable differences in the authors of two great novels, they also have a few similar beliefs. There are also similarities in terms of “parenting” and rejection and fulfillment used in both novels. It is visible that Pride and Prejudice illuminates Mary Shelley’s novel. These women paved the way for novelist today and even the way we use realistic thoughts in our everyday life.
